Effect of shaft stiffness and sole flexibility on perceived comfort and the plantar pressures generated when walking on a simulated underground coal mining surface

Dobson, Jessica A.; Riddiford‐Harland, Diane L.; Bell, Alison; Wegener, Caleb; Steele, Julie R.

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2019.103024

Cited by 11 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Gum boots are associated with more force and contact area in the heel compared to the high cut lace up safety boots [33]. High cut lace up safety boots with varying sole and shaft stiffness are associated with effects on lower limb muscle activity, ankle motion [34] and plantar pressures [35]. High cut lace up safety boots also have an impact on postural control [36] and postural stability under workload [37].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Lower Limb Problems And The Types of Safety Footwear Worn In The Australian Wine Industry: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Copper

Scharfbillig

Nguyen

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: The Australian wine industry is a valuable part of the wider Australian economy worth approximately AUD$45billion annually and employs 163,790 people either full time or part time. Australian agricultural industries are amongst the nation’s most dangerous workplaces with joint, ligament, muscle and tendon injuries being commonplace along with wounds, lacerations and musculoskeletal diseases. It is therefore important to try and minimise the risk of injuries to workers as much as possible. The aims of this study were to (1) identify the types of lower limb problems that occur in the Australian wine industry and (2) identify the types of safety footwear used. Methods: Participants were recruited from the Australian wine industry. The study was a cross sectional anonymous survey of 82 questions with n=207 respondents. Questions related to job role performed, types of lower limb problems experienced, level of pain, restriction of activities, types of footwear worn, general health and physical health.Results: The main working roles were 73.4% winery, 52.2% vineyard, 39.6% laboratory, 32.4% cellar door and 8.2% office, with 63.3% of participants working in more than one role. Lower back pain was the most commonly reported problem at 56% followed by foot pain 36.7%, knee pain 24.6 %, leg pain 21.3%, ankle pain 17.9%, hip pain 15.5%, toe pain 13% and heel pain 11.1%. The most popular footwear used by participants was the elastic sided safety boot, followed by a high cut lace up safety boot with side zip. Overall, although the pain experienced was moderate to severe, it did not impact the workers ability to perform their duties and the majority self-reported as being in very good general and physical health.Conclusion: To date no data has been published on the frequency of lower limb problems or the types of safety footwear worn in the Australian wine industry. This study demonstrated that elastic sided safety boots were the most popular amongst respondents and with that, certain lower limb problems can occur. Therefore, further research into the safety footwear used is needed to better support workers health while working in varied roles and conditions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Lower Limb Problems And The Types of Safety Footwear Worn In The Australian Wine Industry: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Copper

Scharfbillig

Nguyen

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…In addition to the current research team's findings on the biomechanical impact of work boots, another team of researchers from the University of Wollongong, Australia have addressed the biomechanical and psychological impact of mining work boots [18][19][20][21][22][23]. Additionally, similar to the current study, previous research has used both postural sway and EMG measures to compare footwear types in standing tasks (barefoot, stable control shoes, and unstable shoes) [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Role of Occupational Footwear and Prolonged Walking on Lower Extremity Muscle Activation during Maximal Exertions and Postural Stability Tasks

et al. 2021

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Background: Occupational footwear and a prolonged duration of walking have been previously reported to play a role in maintaining postural stability. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the impact of three types of occupational footwear: the steel-toed work boot (ST), the tactical work boot (TB), and the low-top work shoe (LT) on previously unreported lower extremity muscle activity during postural stability tasks. Methods: Electromyography (EMG) muscle activity was measured from four lower extremity muscles (vastus medialis (VM), medial hamstrings (MH), tibialis anterior (TA), and medial gastrocnemius (MG) during maximal voluntary isometric contractions (MVIC) and during a sensory organization test (SOT) every 30 min over a 4 h simulated workload while wearing ST, TB, and LT footwear. The mean MVIC and the mean and percentage MVIC during each SOT condition from each muscle was analyzed individually using a repeated measures ANOVA at an alpha level of 0.05. Results: Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found for maximal exertions, but this was limited to only the time main effect. No significant differences existed for EMG measures during the SOT. Conclusion: The findings suggest that occupational footwear type does not influence lower extremity muscle activity during both MVIC and SOT. Significantly lower muscle activity during maximal exertions over the course of the 4 h workload was evident, which can be attributed to localized muscular fatigue, but this was not sufficient to impact muscle activity during postural stability tasks.

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“…Hence, we establish the Q-network architecture as a four-layer fully connected neural network, and the parameters are set as Table 3. The reward R of each step depends on the captured particles formalized Equation (8).…”

Section: Algorithm 1: Dqn For Top-coal Cavingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the simulation, if the particle location is lower than the bottom of the tail-beam, that means it is captured by the window. The reward of each window is calculated by Equation (8).…”

Section: Algorithm 1: Dqn For Top-coal Cavingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Improving the coal mining technology sustainably to alleviate the damage to the environment is the preferred choice for countries that lack oil sources while rich in coal [5,6]. Underground mining the thick coal seam is the most economical and environmentally-friendly mode currently [7,8]. In the longwall workspace, the top-coal caving is the most effective technology to exploit the coal seam whose thickness is greater than 4 m [9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Deep Q-Network for Optimal Decision for Top-Coal Caving

Yang

et al. 2020

Energies

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In top-coal caving, the window control of hydraulic support is a key issue to the perfect economic benefit. The window is driven by the electro-hydraulic control system whose command is produced by the control model and the corresponding algorithm. However, the model of the window’s control is hard to establish, and the optimal policy of window action is impossible to calculate. This paper studies the issue theoretically and, based on the 3D simulation platform, proposes a deep reinforcement learning method to regulate the window action for top-coal caving. Then, the window control of top-coal caving is considered as the Markov decision process, for which the deep Q-network method of reinforcement learning is employed to regulate the window’s action effectively. In the deep Q-network, the reward of each step is set as the control criterion of the window action, and a four-layer fully connected neural network is used to approximate the optimal Q-value to get the optimal action of the window. The 3D simulation experiments validated the effectiveness of the proposed method that the reward of top-coal caving could increase to get a better economic benefit.

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Effect of shaft stiffness and sole flexibility on perceived comfort and the plantar pressures generated when walking on a simulated underground coal mining surface

Cited by 11 publications

References 32 publications

Identifying Lower Limb Problems And The Types of Safety Footwear Worn In The Australian Wine Industry: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Identifying Lower Limb Problems And The Types of Safety Footwear Worn In The Australian Wine Industry: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Role of Occupational Footwear and Prolonged Walking on Lower Extremity Muscle Activation during Maximal Exertions and Postural Stability Tasks

Deep Q-Network for Optimal Decision for Top-Coal Caving

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